Spore, EA and DRM (oh my!)

[KillerGremlin]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080908-gamers-fight-back-against-lackluster-spore-gameplay-bad-drm.html

For developers, the primary goal of DRM is stopping piracy. The problem is that it does that job poorly, and, as always, it's the legitimate customers who get stuck dealing with the insanity of having to call EA to ask for more installations after their three are used up. And why they're on hold with EA support, the pirates are enjoying copies of a game that works, every time they want to play it, no matter what they do to their computer.

http://www.amazon.com/Spore-Mac/dp/B000FKBCX4


What's up with DRM these days? Haven't developers figured out that DRM does not stop pirates?

For the honest customer, DRM is a nuisance and an insult. Why should my game have DRM bullshit on it after I pay 50 or 60 dollars for it?

For the pirate, DRM is easily cracked. Seriously, I've downloaded games from time to time over the past 10 years and no DRM has ever stood in the way of the pirate community.


Apparently Spore has pretty average gameplay too. I like STEAM and Valve. They provide quality online gameplay content (HL2, Counter-Strike). If you want to play you have to pay....but, I have no problems paying because the content is great and I don't get treated like a pirate. I can reinstall my STEAM games as many times as I want on as many computers as I want.

DRM = a joke. You cannot stop the pirate community and you just alienate legit customers with the DRM stuff. DRM needs to go away.

[Fyacin]

This is just ridiculous. No way am I buying a copy of spore if they are going to do this. There are way to many other good games to buy that don't treat me like a criminal.

[GameMaster]

Help carpet-bomb the Amazon rating!

1 Star!

Worst game ever!

[Dyne]

Help carpet-bomb the Amazon rating!

1 Star!

Worst game ever!

I seriously don't get why everyone is doing this.

Also, my brother cracked the game with no sweat. It stops pirates? Bull fucking shit. It stops people from sharing discs in real life and nothing else!

[manasecret]

Have to agree, I'm tired of this DRM shit. They even have a template to copy now, in the form of Steam.

Though I wonder if Spore would even have run on my PC.

[Jason1]

Spore's specs actually arent that bad. 2.0ghz, 512mb's RAM, and a fairly modest graphics card is all you need.

[bobcat]

I wish I too could be tired of DRM......what's DRM!??!?!?!?

[KillerGremlin]

I wish I too could be tired of DRM......what's DRM!??!?!?!?

Digital rights management (DRM) is a generic term that refers to access control technologies used by hardware manufacturers, publishers and copyright holders to limit usage of digital media or devices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management

Essentially, DRM is anti-piracy software usually built in to a game or a DVD.

It typically started out as being the software that made it difficult (made it difficult but did not prevent) to copy your PC game and give it to your friend. It's the software that makes it so you have to insert the CD into the computer to play the game.

Now developers are rewarding loyal customers who are shelling out hard cash by making them go through online verifications, install restrictions, and a whole bunch of other bullshit. This new DRM stuff treats the loyal customers like they are thiefs and acts as a minor nuisance for the pirates.

In the ongoing battle of developers vs. pirates, the pirates always win. There is always some coder who is living in his mom's basement that is going to crack whatever-the-fuck prevention put in place.

That's what DRM is.



DRM also extends to movies and even music.

Sony got the shit sued out of them for selling CDs that installed a hidden rootkit when you tried to play them in your computer. That's about as shady as DRM gets.

Here's the wikipedia link with info on the SONY scandal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal

[bobcat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management

Essentially, DRM is anti-piracy software usually built in to a game or a DVD.

It typically started out as being the software that made it difficult (made it difficult but did not prevent) to copy your PC game and give it to your friend. It's the software that makes it so you have to insert the CD into the computer to play the game.

Now developers are rewarding loyal customers who are shelling out hard cash by making them go through online verifications, install restrictions, and a whole bunch of other bullshit. This new DRM stuff treats the loyal customers like they are thiefs and acts as a minor nuisance for the pirates.

In the ongoing battle of developers vs. pirates, the pirates always win. There is always some coder who is living in his mom's basement that is going to crack whatever-the-fuck prevention put in place.

That's what DRM is.



DRM also extends to movies and even music.

Sony got the shit sued out of them for selling CDs that installed a hidden rootkit when you tried to play them in your computer. That's about as shady as DRM gets.

Here's the wikipedia link with info on the SONY scandal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal
Thanks for the explanation, my brain got 2 extra hp from this :)

[RoachGnome]

I’ve been following this game for A LONG time and all I got was three mediocre games and this lame ass DRM issue. True its fun making your creatures but I could’ve saved 40 bucks and played with the creature creator. I feel like EA screwed me again.

[magus113]

It figures that Spore would turn into yet another "Maxis wants to destroy your wallet with expansion packs" kind of game again.

[RoachGnome]

It figures that Spore would turn into yet another "Maxis wants to destroy your wallet with expansion packs" kind of game again.


Which is what he said.

Do you envision Spore being supported with a lot of expansion packs like The Sims has been?

I think it will be similar in extent but hopefully not the same strategy we took with The Sims. With The Sims, we were basically selling expansion packs to the same customers over and over. I think Spore lends itself more to horizontal expansion, where we take components of the game like levels or editors into totally different formats and hit people that maybe never even played the hardcore PC game(which this is not), but would enjoy a lighter experience using one of the editors. Or, using the content in new ways outside of Spore the game. I think we’re going to see Spore expanding in a much wider variety of ways than The Sims did, but to the same extent. Different systems, different game styles, things like that. Once you have this much content there’s a lot of things you can do with it, gaming and otherwise.